February 9, 2010

I’m sorry.

I really, really am. But grad school and work and my writing gig at WW have given me little to no time to post here (that is a lie, im just lazy and forgetful).

BUT…. things are rolling along in music land… cervantes had their grand-reopening (which the bathrooms weren’t finished for), I went and saw a pretty good little post-grunge trio called The Ultraviolent Lights at Quixotes (odd venue for such a band) and ended up being one of three people in the audience, and i made it to one night of the disco biscuits at the fox (i don’t remember much from that, other than the music never stops at a DB show).

and today, i snagged two tickets to two of the three nights of the return (sortof) of the string cheese incident at Red Rocks this summer. so, my summer is starting to take shape it seems….

September 25, 2009

I’m reliving this little ’99 Texas run for a few reasons… One, I was thinking a lot about how it’s been ten years since my grandma passed, and as I mentioned earler these shows were a big release for me to have just a week after. Two, I’m trying to entice El Jefe to get off his ass and come see phish with me for the first time in TEN YEARS… Third, this night was one of my favorite times ever with our good friend D-Bird, who is no longer with us.

We woke up, and I’m not sure why D-bird didn’t go to Austin with us (since he and I were roomates at college together, this is even more baffling)… but he didn’t. But Jeff and I had plans to meet up with D-bird, Dana B and Little Stu early on in the day at D-bird’s mom’s house (which was vacant, as she was moving in with her new husband if i remember correctly). With the crew rounded up, we cruised over to the lot of Cynthia Woods.

The amphitheater itself is not bad, but the area its in is so weird. It’s like they dropped it in the middle of a shopping/office center and you park literally in the office parks (thiings may have changed, i haven’t been here in a while). The walk up to the place is kinda cool, and you are in these huge woods which makes it pretty spooky after shows… anyway, we got in early and set up shop on the front of the lawn (at the rail). Dana, Jefe, D-bird and I were all enjoying our fake-id’s working when we realized Little Stu (a sophomore in high school, mind you) was missing. AFter freaking out for a bit, the kid returns with a wicked grin on his face… we ask him what’s up and he sticks out his tounge which is covered in paper. D-bird freaking out over the thought of babysitting Stu all night was classic, even though Stu held it down like a pro (which is yet another reason why he is now my attorney).

as for the show… it’s yet another overall well played show with no real low points.

tube opener was cool after the first tube opener the night before, limb by limb is very well played, and Page KILLS IT covering On Your Way Down.

special treat near the end of the first set when the girl screaming for sleeping monkey gets her request with the promise that Fish will “sing it extra pretty for you”.

bowie is very drawn out and spacey, as is the Coil that follows it. The real heat of the show is the Rock and Roll -> 2001 > Frankenstein > Julius. I remember my head nearly exploding as they went into Frankenstein.

after the show we all cruised back to d-bird’s house where, for some reason, there was a keg… I remember Stu getting a call from his parents at 4:20 in the morning asking him where he was and if D-bird could please drive him home.

August 30, 2009

well, at least in the nerdy sense of finding a blog with a similar interest in wookery in parking lots across America…

This Week on Lot brings you the everpresent humor of wasted youth (and more often nowadays, not youth) stumbling through their lives tour by tour… in a weekly podcast form (do people use the term podcast?) taboot!!

August 20, 2009

OKIE DOKIE!

Well, after waking up in a burning hot hotel room in Noblesville we realized that we were missing one of Team Pirate… Smiley had disappeared the day before and we lost contact with him after his phone got drenched after the Deer Creek show. So we packed up his stuff along with ours in the car and headed to Alpine…

Dropped friends off at the hotel they were staying at, checked into our hotel (which is an entirely different story altogether) and made our way up to the lot around 4:30. Walked in about thirty minutes before showtime (saw a bunch of unused tickets stuffed into the chainlink fence) and made our way down about 17 rows back on a stub-down from the great PHILLY!

Show wise, for me, the highlights range from songs I simply love and loved the placement of, to well-played jams, to unique novelties that make phish phish….

NIGHT ONE:
– PYITE as an opener was a great choice for an opener, and Page really shines during the Landlady parts… especially the last segment. Overall pretty well played, with plenty of energy from the band and audience (listen to the crowd chanting along during the countdown at the beginning)
– Ya Mar was great. I absolutely love this song and hadn’t heard it (obviously) in quite a long time. Mike’s bubbly baseline and page’s organ carry the tune, while trey’s tone is a bit dirtier than I remember it being for this song… but whatever.
– Antelope, I remember as being real high-energy and just watching Philly loving this tune next to Erin and I was enough for me to include it on my highlight reel.
– Maze – hell yeah. Tighter and grittier than the version from Hampton, with (once again) a much stronger presense of page in the mix than I remember from days of old.
– Makisupa Policeman – just thought this one was funny. “Woke up thismorning, pissin’ in Jah cup. Woke up in the afternoon, called my probation officer”
– Ghost > Lizards, YEM > NICU was the big segment from this show I’ve included. Ghost has a really quiet start to the jam with a great funky buildup. Though you kindof expect the ghost-themed jamming to go on for a bit, around 5:45 things start changing up and taking on a new form. By 6 minutes, Mike has completely changed around and you can hear Fish changing up as well… four minutes later there is again a bit more semblance of ghost, but it’s very noodly and fish is still pretty far out there. At the 11:40 mark, you can hear switch gears in his head to Lizards. Lizards is well played in the composed parts, and Page really takes off during his solo. (Lizards, along with PYITE, are two of my favorite Gamehenge-related songs – -especially since we got a dog named Wilson, which makes visualizing the whole storyline a lot funnier)
– YEM > NICU – Page is doing some really cool synth stuff in the YEM breakdown, very fun to listen to… and his organ work during the trampolines is wonderfully overdriven soulfunk. The bouncy-style jam (around the 10:22 mark) that evolves after the tramps slowly morphs into NICU over the next two minutes or so until Trey completely changes the temp to go into the song…. Mike is the highlight of this song, recognized by Trey who calls out “PLAY IT MIKE” instead of “PLAY IT LEO” …
– Ending this show was the band ripping through a (somewhat sloppy) version of Hendrix’s “Fire”. And while there’s better, more ripping versions they have done of this song – watching them smile and laugh on stage while tearing it up was the best way they could have ended the show… it’s good to see phish back on stage with a sense of humor.

We went out into the parking lot after this, and stood on the roof of the car as fireworks exploded overhead until it was time to head back to our hotel. Still no sign of Smiley by this point. We think he’s either stuck in Indy or likely at AV and crashing in the same clothes he’s been wearing for three days.

We woke up the next morning and headed over to the Consider It Dan hotel where we had friends staying. We poached our way into the water park they had in the middle of the hotel, and raged water slides for a few hours before getting ready and dipping over to the lot early again. I got yelled at for standing on my car by security, and learned the game of ‘chosing teams’, whereby you draft a “team” for yourself out of passers by. YOu can also draft people for other people’s teams. For example, the guys next to us who gave us free local beers were on my team. When some shirtless spun wook passed out near the portopotties, i drafted him for Erin’s team. Now, I know there are no real winners and losers in this game, but by the end of the night you have a good idea of who drafted better.

We finally found Smiley, who was very happy to change into clean clothes. He also busted out the gold “champ” medals that we have been sporting all tour since. whoop!

Sweet Willy and his lovely wife stubbed us down into the pav’s this night… wonderful time with them.

i digress… moving on to my picks:

Brother opener was really funny and great to see, but I can’t bring myself to listening to brother all of the way through anymore so I didn’t put it on.

– Wolfman’s Brother – I really enjoy how they have been playing this song in 09. the Hampton version had some of the best funk of the whole weekend, and subsequent Wolfman’s (Camden, jones’ beach, ‘roo) had the same overlying bouncy funk with heavy clavinet from Page.
– Joy – the haters can suck it, because this song is awesome. I can’t believe Trey doesn’t bust out crying every time he sings this song written and dedicated to his sister who died less than a year ago. It makes me cry, damnit.
– Taste – this song will forever remind me of 1998 phish for some reason. Probably not even a valid reason… but it does. Great tune, well played… I can’t not pick this, what with Trey’s overdriven tone and soaring notes towards the end. Always a show favorite for me.
– Poor Heart – FINALLY SOME BLUEGRASS. Thanks mike. (trey also does a great job on this… lots of cool fills and accents)
– TMWSIY > Avenu Malkanu > TMWSIY – I’ll be honest and admit that by the time Avenu Malkanu is finished I’m usually ready for it to be over… But this is a great example of phish madness to me and how can I not include this on the mix?
– Crosseyed and Painless > DWD > Bug– this was the big jam I had been waiting for thus-far in the show (me and everyone else, I imagine) and they delivered pretty well. Second leg versions of this song as well as the level of jamming improved, but this version is standout to me in how they go from jamming a buildup out of crosseyed to about 5:40 seconds into the “alpine jam” track when they go into a really cool space and lose the song completely… page’s synth work is remniscent of some 2000-era atmosphere jams (like the Fukuoka jams, for example). Mike steps on the liquid bass pedal around 9 minutes and you can begin to hear DWD move in… Somewhat typical DWD buildup jam, with a bit of the spaceyness that closed out X-eyed in there (especially at the end)… the song moves on to feedbacky noise before Bug appears. Now, hate all you want, but this was an excellently placed bug. And I have a hard time hating on this song due to great memories of Cypress (yet another great set placement for Bug in a show)
– Frankenstein is absurd. Trey on a five-neck guitar, page on a Keytar, Mike on a flame bass…. Absurd. Also, rocking. So enjoy.

OKAY… I think that pretty much covers those two nights… I hope you enjoy the tunes and don’t find my writeup too trite and hippy dippy… even if you do, again, enjoy the tunes – they speak for themselves a lot better than I can.

August 13, 2009

okay, I’m finally getting around to doing this thing…. as two small dogs run around my feet and bark over the band playing on my laptop

anyway, our summer started out at Deer Creek… After flying into milwaukee, WI on Wednesday night and driving down to indiana thursday morning, we were all pretty amped to get on the lot and enjoy the hell out of ourselves to start out the summer phish shows…

with thunderstorms looming in the distance, we raged the lawn the first set… overal the vibe reminded me of summer 98, in that it was very lose playing and a very SOTG-filled set… I really got into the new song, stealing time from the faulty plan as well… but starting at Ocelot (one of my favorite of the new songs) the show began to get pretty damn interesting. Ocelot is well-played, and explored out — clocking in at just over nine minutes before the band reels it back in. the fluffhead is by far the best of the summer tour, with few flubs in the composed section and lots of energy and feeling in the opening and closing sections…

at setbreak, erin and I made our way down into the pavilion with a pair of taper tickets we had bought the week before and convinced some security guard that since we weren’t tapers but had pavilion tickets that she should seat us elsewhere. She agreed and put us on the front row of the second section in some VIP/handicapped section… we laughed as page came on and warned everyone of the storm, then spent about 15 minutes jaw-dropped watching the torrents of water and streaks of lightning that ensued…

when the band came back on, with the wind swirling around and lightning still flashing in the distance, A song i heard the Ocean sing seemed to be a most fitting opener. Yeah, it’s a new song and yeah, i never really heard it played out much before… but this version was very intense and dark, very fitting to the mood and storm. the jam goes from evil and disjointed to melodic and pretty by 9:30 and then into Drowned, which is pure rock and roll and page shining through into the ‘noblesville jam’ track to a more laid-back funky porno groove at 3:50 or so with some great mike bombs before trey comes out with twist from the space. very well done, and i remember smiling very big at this point in the show. Twist is pretty noodly, though it begins to stray from the theme by about 7 minutes — where it gets a bit noodly and spacey again.

Now, i threw in ‘let me lie’ for the sake of continuity… i didn’t really like the placement of this song (nor do i really like this song yet, for that matter), but i will say that it made the upcoming tweezer that much better.

listening now, the tweezer > 2001 was just as nasty as i remember. at one point i had written out a pretty detailed account of this song and jam, but i seem to have lost it and don’t feel like going through it all again right now… but when they breakdown after the ‘uncle ebeneezer’ wierdness part, page’s piano work is outstanding and sets the tone for the rest of the sickness to come… follow it through the tweezer ‘theme’ and then listen as trey goes off from there…. until the red rocks tweezer (more on that later), this was by far my favorite jam of the 3.0. at 5:15, they hit what has to be a rehearsed breakdown… but it works REAL WELL in here, with only fish still carrying any semblance of tweezer. at 5:53, this new theme really starts to take off and doesn’t come back until around 9:10 or so, when they develop a new and quirky little melody before dropping into the pre-2001 space and feedback stuff….

the 2001 is 8 minutes plus of a bob mayonaise-creamy rhodes and funky porno guitar dance party. a great way to end the massive segment of jamming.

now, not to slight the rest of the show — and maybe it was just me — but after this, the energy levels and the setlist went back to the pre-storm levels. I of course loved the sleeping monkey > tweeprize encore (SM is easily one of my favorite goofball songs they do, and i;ll take it any encore), but didn’t include it in the highlights because I figured by this point you either have the entire show, or will be tracking it all down — and if not you probably don’t care about the encore anyway.

August 8, 2009

Don’t get me wrong, camping at the gorge is a lot of fun. It’s also loud and shadeless.

So this go-round we are staying at the Vantage Riverstone Resort. And by resort I mean crappy motor inn off the highway – BUT, we have air conditioning, a bed, a shower, instant Columbia river access, a breakfast diner and peace and quiet. Yes, I realize this makes me sound like some grumpy old fuck who loves his creature comforts (as it should), but it makes me much happier at the show, which benefits everyone (maybe even you!)

We bought a blowup ball and dolphin to write “carini” on in hopes of getting them to play it for Erin tonight. Otherwise, some river time is in order and then we are going to the lot early to hang out, see the scene and grab a matching pollock for yesterday’s poster hopefully.

Wow. This show was awesome. From the song selection to the playing to the exploration (Sally, gin). Destiny was a real treat to hear. Not sure what that second song in the second set was, and it seemed a bit janky, but the jam out of that and into taste was very good.

Erins back really started to hurt her midway through the first set, so by the end of the show we were ready to drive the 6 miles back to our little motel (crack).

I’ll be on lot reporting on wookery early, now it’s time to passout.

*updated as of 12:49 pm

Really, I’m looking back over my notes from last night and it was all so good. I was really pumped for the pebbles andarbles, that is one of my favorites of that batch of songs. Hood was very long and good. “mikes bass line in breakdown = funk” is what I have about destiny. …

Destiny. Wow

Sally is epcot from my memory – you guys listening now can verify that for me, and cavern wAs perfectly placed (and well played. First time I’ve seen them hit the lyrics right in years).

Light is okay, but the jam and transition into taste was superb. Fluffhead had the same superoverdriven Trey tone from the RR intro, but through the whole tune this time.

August 8, 2009

August 7, 2009

Photo dump.

I know, faithful seven (5) readers I have, you don’t have to tell me.

I promise to get on with slightly-witty and barely insightful comments about the lot and the goings on at the gorge and abandon this boring discussion of my travels. I know that’s what draws you here to check on me and what random part of the country I may be in at the time.

One hour to go, enjoy these pics. Went thru the cascades in the fog and now Im sitting in the sunlight in the Dodge.